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100-Year-Old Family Farm Forced Out Of Businesss By Obama Administration

Drakes Bay Oyster Company, a 100-year-old family business in California’s Marin County, is shutting down after the US Interior Department refused to renew its lease yesterday.

HotAir.com provides the details about how federal bureaucrats are forcing the Lunny family — who were praised for the sustainability of their operations — out of business after a seven-year struggle with the government:

“The Lunny family, which owns the oyster farm, was among a group of families that sold their ranch lands to the National Parks Service in the 1970s to protect them from developers, with the understanding they would get 40-year-leases renewed in perpetuity. After buying and operating the oyster farm without incident— they were even featured as outstanding environmental stewards by the National Parks Service— the Lunnys learned in 2005 they were accused of bringing environmental damage to an area the NPS and environmentalists were anxious to designate as the nation’s first federally recognized marine wilderness.”

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the National Parks Service may have been cooking the books to make the Lunny’s eco-friendly business look bad:

“…a panel of scientists concluded that National Park Service officials made errors, selectively presented information and misrepresented facts in a series of reports about his Drakes Bay shellfish operation. “

Even Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a liberal Democrat, weighed in on behalf of the Drakes Bay Oyster Co. and against the National Parks Service:

“The National Park Service’s review process has been flawed from the beginning with false and misleading science. (This) effectively puts this historic California oyster farm out of business. As a result, the farm will be forced to cease operations and 30 Californians will lose their jobs.”

Upon learning of the news that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar would not renew the Drakes Bay lease, a employee with 25 years of service in the company said, according to the San Jose Mercury News, that “the owners are really good people. They treat us well and they pay us well.”

If you voted for Obama, are you still buying the claim that the administration wants to help small business and put middle class Americans back to work?

Watch a video about how the feds “framed” the Drakes Bay Oyster Co., a family owned small business: